Willerson Center Graduate Student Awarded AHA Fellowship

Toni West, currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Oden Institute's Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modelling and Simulation, has been awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.

This opportunity is designed to support highly promising postdoctoral candidates with the potential to significantly advance the study of health. Dr. West was chosen for her research on uncovering the cellular basis for aortic valve disease. In receiving her fellowship, she became the third NIH postdoctoral fellow in the Willerson Center, alongside Drs. Christian Goodbrake and Dan Howsmon.

Using real clinical images, Willerson researchers have developed computational techniques that have uncovered specific stretch patterns associated with the motion of healthy and diseased aortic valves. With the help of Willerson Center affiliated faculty, Dr. Aaron Baker based in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT Austins Cockrell School of Engineering - Toni West asks what it is about these stretch patterns that correlate with healthy aortic heart valve cell function.